Walk the path you must
by Angelic visage
Summary: The story of Augus life, and his thoughts leading up to the final confrontation with Asura. Some non-canon.


**Please forgive and feel free to point out issues in spelling in grammar, as English is not my native language :)**

* * *

If you asked him what his early life was like, Augus would struggle to give an answer.

Perhaps due to the tens of thousands of years that have passed since his birth on that distant continent, or perhaps due to not having thought about that time for so long.

Born to an unimportant family, he came into the world without the gift of sight and learned swiftly to find his way without the ability to see, relying instead on finely tuned senses and the ability to sense the mantra all around him.

He lost his family to the Gohma before his adulthood, and he wandered for a time until he found a master warrior, the renowned carrier of the Wailing Dark. He demanded he train him. At first the man did not want to do so and refused him, but he was persistent and refused to leave or take no for an answer until the man relented and taught him to fight.

Fron there he spent many years under his tutorage, became a demigod and fought the Gohma alongside the warriors of the Shinkoku Empire.

He refused the ascetic practices of his master and allowed himself to indulge in drink, violence and women; in those times he used mantra, and discovered the mantra of greed suited him well. But soon he found that others were too reliant on mantra in battle. It could fade or run out if prayers and souls faded, leaving his fellow warriors as weak as a newborn to be ripped apart by the Gohma they faced, and so he ceased to rely on mantra. He came to see what mantra truly was, a crutch; a crutch for the weak to play at being strong when they were nothing of the sort.

Since that time, he only used mantra against worthy opponents.

After that revelation, he only grew strong and stronger, and his master had less and less to teach him.

Eventually, he challenged the man and slew him, supposedly one of the strongest men on Gaia.

He buried him. The man had trained and taught him, and he died a warrior's death.

That day he began to wander the land in search of worthy battles and new adventures.

...

"So you're Augus. My name is Deus. Recently appointed one of the eight guardian generals."

He had assumed the man would be weak, just like the one before him. Augus had not even had to draw his blade to kill the man.

His first and only fight with Deus was fun.

The best fight he had had in his life. His old mentor could not have matched it, nor the former guardian general he had slain just days before. The land quaked as fist met fist, Sakra hit Wailing Dark and the skies were filled with lightning and the golden glow of his sword cuts.

Even centuries later much of the land was left barren from their conflict.

...

His time as a guardian general was entertaining. He was always first to be sent when the Gohma appeared, but compared to his wandering of before it lacked a certain amount of adventure and the constant danger he encountered on the road. The rare fights with Gohma Vlitra certainly broke his boredom in their catastrophic intensity. But eventually even the mightiest Gohma Crusher was little more than a momentary distraction, and only the Vlitra and the great Gohma Strikers and their huge swarms could provide an entertaining battle.

So, when Deus took an apprentice, a stiff and overly stern young demigod by the name of Yasha he decided to do the same, the brash and hotheaded Asura.

Those two truly were like night and day.

It brought a certain form of entertainment, teaching the young demigod to fight and trust his fists as he did. It brought back memories of his own mentor, but unlike that man, Augus always made sure to push his student to the limit and sometimes further, to make him stronger and a better fight whenever the two of them would spar.

Sometimes the man's anger would blind him with rage and he would even attack him, but of course, he would always take the pup back down, he was a long way away from being a worthy fight for him.

But still, Asura kept growing stronger.

Then he found himself a woman; Durga and began to grow distracted from his training.

Augus had had many lovers over his life, never lasting long as he moved from place to place in search of a good battle. The transitory nature of a wandering warrior never facilitated the development of something more, and he was not the sort to ever settle down either. He was invited to the ceremony, it was boring but he turned up out of obligation.

Afterwards, he returned back to the usual dirge of fighting Gohma barely worth his notice and waiting around indulging in his various vices.

Fine wine, women and fighting, the only things he really needed in life.

But then, Vritra's latest emergence and Asura managing to defeat the great beast with the assistance of his daughter, Mithra. It was the first time the master really took notice of his student's child, as stories of the priestesses' power to manipulate and enhance the power became a prominent topic among his fellow Guardian Generals; Kalrow speculating on how it could change their battle strategies and Deus with a speculative gleam in his eyes.

But seeing as he refused to use mantra, that crutch to support a warrior who could not stand on his own two feet, he paid it little attention.

...

Looking back, it did not take much to convince him to continue his 'duties' as a Guardian General as a 'Deity'.

He was the only one not to take part in Deus little coup, and when he woke that morning he expected another dull day of peace with little conflict after Vlitra had returned to sleep.

Hell, he would have probably spent the next few weeks getting drunk and enjoying the finest maidens of the Imperial city.

Augus certainly did not expect to the other Guardian Generals at his door backed up by most of the Shinkoku army and fleet with armaments focused on him with the demand that he come and see the head of the 'Deities', Deus. Deus? A god? No, if the man was a god then so was he and he was far from being any sort of divine being of any sort.

He could have fought back, sure.

Hell, sometimes he wonders why he did not. it would have certainly been a fun fight, him against the entire Shinkoku military force. it would probably have pushed him into unleashing Wailing Dark on his fellow generals, but in the heat of the moment he was too intrigued at what was going on and allowed himself to be led to the Imperial Palace to meet with the one man ever to have provided him with an equal battle.

When he entered the great hall it was to find a Deus whose power had increased by an order of magnitude; he would later learn due to the power of Asuras daughter.

It was somewhat surprising to hear of Asuras treacherous death, and then truth behind it, and then the man gave him a choice. He could become one of the Deities and assist him in achieving the Great Rebirth with the power of his student's child, or die.

He did join them, but never did he accept the power of Mithra.

Even as his fellow Guardian Generals became Deities and started to explore their new strength and power, none of them could match him, bar Deus and he refused to become a slave to mantra. Even when Wyzen, Yasha and Sergei used as much of their new power as they could and consumed the irreplaceable souls of many humans they could not truly excite his blood or provide an interesting fight.

...

The world has become a boring place.

At first, it was fun when Deus took over from Emperor Strada. There was plenty of fighting for a few years, various insurrections and attempts to take power by supporters of the old royal family but they were all put down. There was also the constant threat of the Gohma, the constant thorn in the side of Humanity for so many tens of thousands of years. He missed Asura, his pupil's headstrong desire to throw himself into every fight, just like himself.

Distantly he remembers those times.

Great battles against hordes of Gohma that spread from one horizon to another, before Olga massed their fleets in such numbers that any ground based Gohma rampage was destroyed in hours, before Sergei and Wyzen would steal away their souls all for Deus great vision for the future. Should it be completed then everlasting peace shall surely come to Gaia, it shall be a time of prosperity and celebration that shall last for thousands of years no doubt, perhaps forever? It shall be a time when fighting for good or evil shall cease.

His age will end.

Looking up Augus blind eyes trace the falling shape of a burning demigod falling through the skies. Even from this distance he has heard the battle between his pupil and Kalrow, the explosions as ships were destroyed, sounds he has not heard for so long like music to his ears.

A smile comes to the old man's lips as he stands and begins to walk, approaching a small village girl as he does so.

"Do you worry for him?"

The girl turns to face him, looking up at him, like an ant before a mountain.

"You need not fear. He will not die yet. When he does, it shall be by these hands!"

It is his turn against Asura.

A worthy fight, one hell of a battle.

It is time for the final lesson.


End file.
